Enough Said

Are any films as relaxed as those from writer-director Nicole Holofcener?

Richard Linklater’s, maybe, though his usually have a thrumming intellectual anxiousness beneath the slacker exterior. Holofcener’s pictures seem content to simply breathe, their inconspicuous tracking shots and subtly pleasing framing lending just enough artfulness to the mundane realities of everyday life. Yet within these unassuming packages, Holofcener captures the emotional forcefulness of her characters’ lives in a way that few other working filmmakers can match.

Enough Said, a perceptively funny romantic comedy about the responsibility that comes with loving another, makes the strongest case yet for Holofcener’s unique talents. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, in a revelatory performance, stars as Eva, a divorced masseuse and single mother. Much like the women of Holofcener’s previous pictures, especially Friends with Money and Please Give, Eva is viewed through a lens that’s both empathetic and merciless, so that we come to know her warts (actually blisters here) and all.

When we first meet Eva, she’s preparing for the departure of her college-bound daughter, Ellen (Tracey Fairaway). A seemingly throwaway scene tells us all we need to know about their relationship: as Eva and Ellen snuggle in bed on a lazy morning, Eva peppers her daughter with teasingly inquisitive questions about what she ate the previous day until Ellen leaves in mock exasperation. It’s a sweet moment indicative of their unique, mother-daughter dynamic, while also reflective of one of the movie’s main themes: how love can get twisted when we begin to equate it with control.

Having a kid headed for college is one of the things Eva shares in common with Albert (the late James Gandolfini). The two meet at a party and hit it off, despite Eva’s declaration that “it’s kind of an ugly crowd, really.” (One reason Louis-Dreyfus and Holofcener are such a good match is that they share this sort of instinctual honesty.) I’m not sure I could come up with a less likely couple than Louis-Dreyfus and Gandolfini – she of the Seinfeld wisecracks and he of the Sopranos whackings – but they prove to be an endlessly endearing pair. Teasing, joking and smiling more fully than either likely has in years, Eva and Albert share a blissful and easy early romance; I wish their first date had gone on forever.

Are any films as relaxed as those from writer-director Nicole Holofcener?

Gandolfini is wonderful, and it’s not just a matter of the actor being “cuddlier” than we’re used to. Albert is a softie, but rather than play that as cute, the movie explores the way his gentleness has cost him. Browbeaten by his ex-wife, he’s retreated to a quiet life of work and catering to his (somewhat undeserving) daughter (Eve Hewson). If Albert is a slightly sad character, it’s only because Gandolfini gives us glimpses of the wit and caring that lie dormant within him.

As for Louis-Dreyfus, I had no idea she had this sort of performance in her (and this is coming from someone who considers her to be one of the great TV comediennes). Her brilliance has always been in her handling of repartee – the instinctive responses she gives to another character’s line, whether it’s a gesture, an expression or a guffaw. Enough Said gives her the chance to ground that skill in an emotionally complicated character. When Eva takes on a new client (Catherine Keener) who introduces herself by saying, “I’m a poet,” Eva catches a laugh in her throat and offers, “I’m a dreamer.” It’s a tossed-off line, but also three other things: a genuine expression of admiration, a bit of a jab and a frustrated admission that poetry is beyond her.

Marianne, the Keener character, is connected to a revelation that some might write off as a plot contrivance. Without getting into details, I’ll only say it puts Eva in a position of knowledge that she should reveal, but doesn’t. The twist never really bothered me, though, because it lends everything – the performances, the emotional risk – a greater richness, especially when Eva is exposed.

Eva eventually realizes that the only thing we can truly control in a relationship is the way we love someone else – be it generously, begrudgingly, suspiciously or fully. Deepening the way we love may ultimately be more fruitful than finding the “perfect” mate. For a humble movie – aesthetically and thematically – Enough Said nevertheless has the potential to rock your personal world.